Crimea State Council nationalizes Crimean subsidiary of Ukraine telephone monopoly

February 11, 2015, 11:36 UTC+3On February 2, the subsidiary asked Crimean PM to nationalize the enterprise, saying the company leadership was taking steps to move the existing assets of the Crimean affiliate out of the republic

SIMFEROPOL, February 11./TASS/. Crimea’s State Council unanimously passed a decision on Wednesday to nationalize the Crimean subsidiary of Ukraine’s major fixed line operator Ukrtelecom owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov.

On February 2, the subsidiary asked Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov to nationalize the enterprise, saying the company leadership was taking steps "to move the existing assets of the Crimean affiliate out of the Republic of Crimea".

It said in an appeal that moves by Ukrtelecom were jeopardizing the functioning of means of communication in Crimea.

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Earlier, the Crimean authorities repeatedly cited unwillingness of the company leadership to cooperate. Up until recently, no attempts have been made to register the subsidiary for work in Crimea in accordance with the Russian legislation.

On February 10, Ukrtelecom fully cut telephone and Internet connections in Crimea, as well as suspended the activities of mobile operator Trimob it owns. Krymtelecom state company took over the servicing of Crimean clients cut off from communication.